I have a few questions and a story for the sales people and business people out there.

Would you rather do more business or less business?

Would you rather do more repeat business or less repeat business?

Would you rather get more referrals or less referrals?

How much does it cost you to get new business compared to repeat and referral business?

Are you open to learning how you can make more sales and do more business?

I know when I ask those questions business people stop and listen. As a business person I ask myself every day how I can increase repeat and referral business. I use a simple, affordable system to build repeat and referral business and to generate new business.

Now the story…

Today I went for a walk in downtown Whitby. I can’t drive right now so I decided to walk and talk to business owners. I set a goal to meet and talk to 25 people and get permission to send them something.

In 24 of the businesses the managers and owners were open to me when I asked if I could send them some information, some even asked when I could email it.

In one business I went into I was referred to the “Chief Marketing Officer”. Initially he refused to speak to me but after I asked one question he did let me speak for a minute.

When I said I would like to send him some information and asked him for his card he refused. His answer was “I don’t want to get on a mailing list and get a bunch of junk in my inbox.” I explained to him again that I was going to send the information by snail mail. He begrudgingly gave me his card after a few seconds of thought.

I reassured him that I would mail not email the information and left.

Now for the interesting part of the story…

The company provides digital marketing services to business. On their website they have opt-in forms for people request information which subscribes them to their list…BUT THEY DON”T WANT TO BE ON ANYBODY’S LIST.

What do you think?

(If you are open to making more sales and doing more business get in touch.)

Sadly many of the online marketers are promoting this idea and business owners and salespeople are falling for it.

Get as many names and email addresses as you can as fast as you can and sell them something. That works if you are selling a product for $29.99 (or whatever price point they use) but it becomes a lot of work every month. Unsubscribes shrink the list, new products must be developed or old products repackaged, content must be revised in the website and in every email, value must be proven every time and everything needs to compete with gazillions of free offers on the internet.

I am sad to say when I first started out years ago I bought into this idea in a big way. I was always looking for cheap, dirty tricks to build my email list. I offered white papers, I offered a newsletter, I gave away free advice but it didn’t work for me because I wasn’t earning any money.

I changed tactics and went back to what I enjoy and learn from, before I tell you my secret tactic please ask yourself these important questions…

How many new customers do you need each month to make a living?

How many existing customers re-order every month?

How many referrals do you generate from your relationships every month?

Once I understood these questions and the numbers involved I realized that for me and my business that building a super large list was the wrong way for me to achieve success. I studied many successful who were making more money than I was to see what they were doing. I shrunk my list. I went back to my favourite tactic and my success increased and so did my income.

I will repeat that… I shrunk my list. I went from lists of thousands to a list of less than two hundred. I made it harder for people to get on my list. I went back to my favourite business building tactic and it is working for me.

My favourite business building tactic is easy, affordable, fun and helps me meet new people all the time.

What is it?

Building relationships by talking to people. My mother told me to never talk to strangers but I have learned more and made more money from talking to strangers than anything else I have ever done to increase my sales. I have made more sales because I built relationships. I have given and received more referrals because I have built relationships. (I am planning another post about how I meet new people every day and 99% of the business people I know won’t do it.)

“People are the core of every business. Businesses are based on relationships, and relationships are based on people. I would go to an average restaurant run by amazing people over an outstanding restaurant run by awful people.”